Unicoi State Park offers a variety of accommodation options. There is everything from full hook-up campsites for $24 (senior and Georgia veteran discounts available) to walk-in tent sites for $14, to cabins and cottages that sleep up to eight people and start at $69, to regular hotel rooms in the lodge. I bunked with a friend one Saturday night in the lodge while attending a conference/retreat for women in August 2005. What were the lodge rooms like? We registered in the main building, which is full of a variety of conference rooms, a restaurant, a gift shop, and common areas. Our actual room was in building A. It was small with two beds, a TV with HBO, a pine desk, and coffeep
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What were the lodge rooms like? We registered in the main building, which is full of a variety of conference rooms, a restaurant, a gift shop, and common areas. Our actual room was in building A. It was small with two beds, a TV with HBO, a pine desk, and coffeepot. Field and Stream magazine covers are framed as pieces of art. A leaf border running atop the yellow wallpaper matches the leaf pattern in the bedspreads. The heavy green curtains opened to reveal endless thickets of pine trees.
The age of the facility was evident in the bathroom, where the wallpaper was peeling in a couple of places and a splotch of mold was growing above the shower. To be fair, as awful as that sounds, the room was comfortable/functional (rates start at $69, so it’s pretty cheap if splitting the bill.), and we did not spend a lot of time there. The reason to stay here is really to enjoy the park itself: the hiking trails, the lake, and the nature programs.
When our conference meetings were over, several friends and I enjoyed sitting on porch swings that were available in the main common area outside. The temperatures at night in late August in Georgia can be hot, but there was a nice breeze. We could see over the resort's 1970s lodge buildings and into the forest. Indeed, that was a very pleasant way to spend an evening.
The restaurant? We ate three meals in the restaurant, all served buffet style, all Southern cooking, i.e. biscuits and gravy, country fried steak, fried trout, mashed potatoes, etc. I enjoyed the breakfast (by far) the most, but it was all okay.
Would I stay here again? Yes. In my opinion, the nearby town of Helen is a complete waste of time, unless you want to pick up some groceries or find an outfitter to help you rent a canoe (the rest of Helen consists of dive bars and restaurants, cheap trinket shops, and a hokey "Alpine Village" scene that is hilarious in light of all the leather-chapped bikers who are riding up and down the road), but Georgia has some beautiful wilderness areas. We saw a black bear and her cubs cross the street a couple miles north of the lodge!!! I know my son would enjoy exploring the state park. There are a ton of things to do, like inner-tubing down the Chattahoochee River, taking a class on snakes, going bird-watching, or going fishing. For those things, I'd return here.
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